Meeting in the Bathhouse

Thelsia, Malza, and Inoshana entered the chamber, shortly after Inoshana had put the towel around her waist. Within she saw him, Yuri was to the right of the bench across from the door in the cooling chamber, with the rest of his surprisingly diverse harem ringing him; he had a towel around his waist to keep anyone from seeing his groin. After leading the two women into the chamber, Thelsia went to sit down by the elusive figure of a male Alpharian, completely naked.

Inonsha and Malza were unsure of what to make of the sight. In addition to the half-fey, there were a gnome, demonkin, lionkin (those were pretty rare in the area), and a rabbitfolk around him. The Rabbitfolk member was confirmed to be Usagi, Inoshana and Malza and had been given profiles to go over and memorize before their trip; they had been told the files were not permitted to leave church archives for a variety of reasons. The archives were managed by the followers of the goddess of Knowledge, Acana, who also reigns over magic and entertainment. The clergy of Acana typically have a dramatic flair to them.

“So,” said Yuri as he gestured for the two guests to have a seat, “to what do we owe this visit?”

“The central church decided that you required a religious representative to keep observation on you and the like,” said Inoshana, “I was granted the winning nomination, and Malza,” she gestured to the Caprae woman, “was selected from the church’s paladin corps as my guardian and protector for more hostile encounters.” Her gaze wandered over to Yuri’s groin for a moment, catching sight of telltale Alpharian waist tattoo-like marking, and nearly causing her to do a doubletake; his groin was larger than any spells that gave male anatomical features allowed. Inoshana started wondering why she was chosen from all of the other options for this duty.

“I was almost certain that a member of the primary goddess would have been sent,” said Alma, “this is the first confirmed Alpharian in ages we are talking about.”

“I made sure to have the priestess see if her goddess could enlighten us on that,” said Malza diplomatically as she took a seat next to the lion woman. She turned her attention to Inoshana, “Tell them, it is your duty to explain this sort of thing.”

Inoshana started looking a little nervous as she positioned herself on an empty seat next to the door, before saying in a shaky voice, “It seems my goddess had a rather strong influence in how things played out regarding Yuri’s arrival,” she got a bit more confident, her moon-white fur getting a bit more dignified in the process, “she told me that he was initially supposed to be brought somewhere that had stronger ties to herself, but some of the other deities decided to interfer with the summoning, and that’s why he got flung to a location that was not where any of them intended. She anticipated something like this, just not as severe as we became aware, and got to work before the ritual with her faithful for her backup plan; it just took a bit longer to fully execute than she had anticipated; it seems bickering upper clergy are more keen on playing politics within and without the temple than remaining faithful and following the guidance of their goddess.”

“So,” said Yuri, “they’ve been corrupted by their stations in life, instead of remaining humble in their faith’s tenants.”

“Yes,” said Inoshana, “I was one of the intended candidates to greet you at the initial point, but higher echelons of the clergy weren’t particularly happy about my candidacy; something about working to prevent my kind from getting things they were unhappy about us getting. Centuries ago, my people, the Kitulpin, were often seen as the best choices for high-ranking positions in every church, but then something caused the majority of my people to become more reclusive and pull away from these kinds of positions. I’m the first Kitulpin cleric to emerge since that strange time; I haven’t been permitted to learn the truth behind that time. Not that would help much, seeing as all records regarding that are filed in the same part of the archives as information regarding the restructuring of the world ages ago.”

“And that part of the archives is restricted to only the highest ranking of church figures and officials,” said Malza.

“Sounds to me,” said Yuri, “your goddess is a bit more in the know than most other deities on something, and she planned for me and you to be together for some plan she’s been cooking up. Keep in mind, you did mention that one of her domains is stated to be boundaries…”

“Yes,” said Inoshana, “what are you getting at?”

“I literally grew up in another world,” said Yuri, “and chances are at least one of my ancestors was actually an Alpharian that crossed over to that world for one reason or another.”

“Your point,” Malza snipped, clearly wanting to know where this was going.

“What if Nocturia did all this because she was connected to that event in some way,” said Yuri, “and it took her as long as she did to find and confirm my heritage or potential as an Alpharian?”

“And since Alpharians are basically so few, they’re practically a myth,” said Thelsia as she filled in the blanks.

“Nocturia decided to try pulling an Alpharian from somewhere else when she saw the dramatically declining birthrates,” said Inoshana, suddenly catching on, “some cultures and peoples are having far more difficulty producing children, but it’s said that Alpharians could actually influence impregnations regardless of the actual state of their partners.”

“And we’ve gotten confirmation on that with two people here in the town,” said Lithira with a grin.

“Two,” inquired Inoshana and Malza in surprise.

“I’m pretty sure he’s impregnated half the town already,” exclaimed Malza.

“At their insistence,” said Yuri, “but the first two I impregnated were the guild master, who recently had her twins, and the local high priestess, who still has a few months before she gives birth. The guild master was a bit of a happy accident; the high priestess was as she intended. The rest of the town just happened naturally after that; they were all waiting to get the go-ahead from the two that basically run the town.”

“Care to explain how you accidentally gave someone twins,” inquired Malza.

“Well,” started Thelsia, “you see…”